The Department for International Trade has awarded a £7m contract to a three-partner consortium that includes Bristol-headquartered national law firm TLT to advise on three critical trade negotiations as it seeks to shape the country’s post-Brexit trading landscape.
The contract follows the consortium’s appointment to the government’s trade law panel in February 2021 and includes legal advice and support to negotiate the UK’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (the CPTPP) and two bilateral free trade agreements with Canada and Mexico. 
The consortium, which includes US firm McDermott Will & Emery and Canada’s Borden Ladner Gervais, will lead a carefully-curated network of subcontractor law firms across 11 different jurisdictions, including from Japan, Brunei and Peru.
The consortium and its subcontractors will use TLT’s FutureLaw system, which is driving change in the way legal services are delivered to clients, including legal project management and a cutting-edge shared IT platform.
TLT was selected following a competitive panel-wide tender process, based on the strength of its consortium’s expertise in international trade negotiations, international jurisdictions and government advisory work.
TLT also demonstrated its ability to deliver a seamless ‘one-firm’ service across the consortium and wider international subcontractor network to provide best value for money and to promote gender equality across the contract workforce. 
TLT partner and chair of its international trade group, Caroline Ramsay, pictured, said: “It is an absolute honour to have been selected to deliver this significant and complex project for the Department for International Trade.
“We have a proven track record of curating specialist consortia of ‘best-in-class’ law firms and lawyers to support the government, and our consortium’s collective expertise, combined with TLT’s FutureLaw solutions, means we are able to provide a ‘global-boutique’ trade law service to meet the department’s needs.
“The dedication and commitment of the bid team to win such an illustrious instruction was entirely true to TLT’s values and we are looking forward to working with our network of international partners to leverage our individual national excellence and collective international reach.”
TLT, which has more than 130 partners and employs around 1,150 people across its seven offices, recently announced it was looking to accelerate the development of its international network as part of a four-year roadmap of rapid growth to increase its turnover from £110m to £140m-plus by 2025.
